Money and tests don’t define quality education

Opinion

August 26, 2010

Anonymous THE GOSHEN NEWS The Goshen News Thu Aug 26, 2010, 12:02 AM EDT

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett gave his state of education address Monday night in Indianapolis. His message was clear: More money won’t fix our education system.

Well, he’s right. For decades more money has been thrown at our schools and we’re told that their performance keeps getting worse. Of course the curve in which schools are gauged these days appears to have changed shape as standards get tougher and the achievement gap between minorities and white students continues to grow. School corporations with more diversity are punished under the No Child Left Behind Act because the opportunity for failure increases considerably.

School corporations have been downsizing for the past several years, mainly through teacher attrition and even program cuts when that isn’t enough. But many school corporations are saddled with teacher contracts that dictate smaller class sizes. Some corporations even have desegregation orders that add to the headache of doing more with less.

Bennett’s plea is admirable, but it will be a tough sell to teacher’s unions trying to protect their constituency and school superintendents trying to protect their bottom lines in an era of No Child Left Behind mandates that often go unfunded. It costs money for a quality public education and it costs even more money to do it the way our state and federal politicians seem to want to do it. So, perhaps doing more with less will require a shift in philosophy.

Goshen’s Chandler Elementary School has recently endured a complete staff overhaul demanded by No Child Left Behind because it couldn’t keep up with test score progress. Will it work in the eyes of accountability laws? It’s unlikely considering the roots of this challenge grow in the home, not the schoolhouse. Will it prove effective? Almost certainly, because the effort that is being put forth by Chandler teachers, staff and administrators will not be in vain.

It is unfortunate that too often success in the classroom doesn’t translate to success on a Scan-tron. Standardized testing is a great tool for educators, but it’s becoming their nemesis. Basing state and federal accountability solely on a standardized test score, is like determining the winner of a baseball game by which team has the most hits. It misses the point and doesn’t tell the most significant part of the story.

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Money and tests don’t define quality education

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